ReliefWeb

INTRODUCTION

Presenters: Margo Baars, Md. Nikarizzaman and Md. Rabiul Hasan

The ISCG secretariat expressed its appreciation to the Government for its leadership and support of the overall relief and response towards the Rohingya refugee population and most affected host communities residing in Cox’s Bazar Upazila of Teknaf and Ukhiya, while highlighting the importance of coordination from relevant stakeholders including different level of government authorities. Limited funding and compounded vulnerabilities in Ukhiya and Teknaf require significant support to prioritize a collective response and large efforts have been made from a health, WASH, nutrition, education, protection, environment and livelihoods perspective, among other key sectors. Toward this aim, the Joint Response Plan (JRP) was developed in March 2018 to support the most vulnerable population, with an emphasis made on the extension of the response toward the most affected host communities living in the 7 unions hosting the highest numbers of refugees. Now at its mid-term review and in view of its extension up to March 2019, there is an opportunity to take stocks of challenges, lessons learned and good practices.
However, there is also a need to further prioritize activities in view of an unprecedent level of underfunding of the JRP. Within this framework, a workshop focusing on host communities is organized with the objective to review the response as of to date, streamline the tracking and monitoring of activities and develop a gap analysis of critical need assistance and social cohesion activities conducted at host community level in recent months. The workshop also aims at better understanding the criticality of needs of affected host communities in Ukhiya and Teknaf while taking stock of challenges in enabling implementation under this framework.
The UNOs of Ukhiya and Teknaf highlighted the commitment made to respond to the influx from the very beginning in their respective areas. In Ukhiya, the Rohingya community is four times larger than the host community which had a large impact on infrastructure, over all topography, traffic congestion and increase in road accidents. To overcome these negative impacts and to foster social cohesion, mid and long-term planning associated with appropriate assessments and proper implementation and prioritization need to be further developed and build on the existing JRP and the work made by the humanitarian communities Holistic programs through all Sectors such as education, health, WASH, nutrition as well as disaster risk management activities are recommended to adequately support the most critical needs of affected host communities.